Sharing Reflections On Christianity

Monthly Archives: February 2015

I have another entry for you from Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost For His Highest”; please reference the Post (Category) by the same title to get all of his entries FREE. Here goes:

“If what we call love doesn’t take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love. If we have the idea that love is characterized as cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and never taken to extremes, we have missed the true meaning. This may describe affection and it may bring us a warm feeling, but it is not a true and accurate description of love.

Have you ever been driven to do something for God not because you felt that it was useful or your duty to do so, or that there was anything in it for you, but simply because you love Him? Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things— things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him. Have you ever created what Mary of Bethany created in the heart of the Lord Jesus? “She has done a good work for Me.”

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him even small gifts of surrender, just to show how genuine our love is for Him. To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God. “…but perfect love casts out fear…” once we are surrendered to God (1 John 4:18). We should quit asking ourselves, “Am I of any use?” and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time.”

End of entry.

There is another section on the same page that has this excellent truth:

“Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L”

I had written a Post on failure and briefly covered how failures can be one of our most VALUABLE blessings but I wanted to cover this wonderful aspect of failure in a little more detail in a separate Post, especially since we fall short and ‘miss the mark’ (the definition of ‘sin’) so VERY OFTEN!

This came to mind this morning when I was reading one of Oswald Chambers’ entries from his book “My Utmost For His Highest” (please reference the Post by same name as this title). His quote is as follows and emphasis is mine:

“NEVER LET THE SENSE OF FAILURE DEFEAT YOUR NEXT STEP.”

This is especially true because we know that our Father and Lord can so EASILY make “ALL things work together for good, to those being called according to purpose” . (Romans 8:28)

One blessing we can experience from our many failures is that it simply reveals to us how weak we are in some areas of our life and how much more effort we need to make in relying COMPLETELY on God and Christ Jesus. You can reference the Posts “Failure Part I”, “Some Of Our Weaknesses Take Longer To Overcome”, “David’s Heinous Sin vs God’s Mercy” and “NEVER….NEVER Give Up” for further discussion on this. Believe me, I know a LOT about failure….this subject is near and dear to my heart!!

Nevertheless, even with all of the above being true, we will still suffer some sort of LOSS because of our failures (mainly ‘fleshly’ sins), either by a hindrance of our Spiritual growth, our out right self loathing or direct chastisement from God and Jesus. As there are varying degrees of sin, so likewise, there are varying degrees of loss and chastisement (1 John 5:16-17).

And, of course, there are failures that are NOT the more serious ‘fleshly’ sins. As an example, we can fail time and time and time again while attempting to consistently “practice the presence of God” (please see the Post by this title). In this case, however, I suspect our Father and Lord may even admire this type of failure because it shows we are TRYING to become more Christlike and come closer to Them.

Still and all, we should always remember “never let the sense of failure defeat your next step”.

If the Scriptures are translated literally and consistently, they reveal a GLORIOUS plan that God and Christ Jesus have in progress and it is broken down into ‘ages’ or ‘eons’. This is an excerpt from the Post (Category) “Eon vs Forever”:

“If they had just PROPERLY TRANSLATED IT CONSISTENTLY, as several versions such as Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal Version have done, we Christians would EASILY see that God has a “PLAN OF THE AGES” (Ephesians 3:11), there was a time “before the ages or eons” (2 Timothy 1:9), that Christ “made the eons or ages” (Hebrews 1:1-2), there are “oncoming ages” (Ephesians 2:7) and there are the “ends of the ages” (1 Corinthians 10:11).”

1. We are now living in “this present wicked age” (Galatians 1:4) and the “age of this world” (Ephesians 2:2).

2. There are ‘ages’ to come after this one. (Revelation 1:6; Ephesian2:7).

3. The next ‘age’ will begin after the Lord’s Day and the following ‘Second Coming’ of Jesus. Then will be the beginning of the Millennium, or the 1,000 year reign mentioned in Revelation 20:6; it is referred to in Mark 10:30 and Luke 18:30 as “the coming age”. It is during this time that all believers will have come into our/their glory and been changed into the likeness of Christ Jesus Himself (Philippians 3:21; Revelation 20:4-5).4. At the conclusion of the Millennium and after Satan’s rebellion is defeated, there comes the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11). This is where ALL who have ever lived will be judged for their actions as humans. This EXCLUDES all believers as we have already appeared before the “judgment seat” of God and Christ and inherited our new,immortal Christ-like bodies, as explained in the Post (Category) “Judgment Seat Of Christ vs Great White Throne Judgment”.Those who ‘survive’ the White Throne Judgment are the ones written in the “Book of Life” and they will go on to experience life with the ‘new heaven and new earth’ (Revelation 20:12-15; 21:1). These ‘survivors’ of the Judgment are the ones mentioned as the “nations” in Revelation 21:24 and 22:22.5. After the White Throne Judgment, Revelation 21 describes how the “New Jerusalem” will descend from the “new heaven” and set up shop on the “new earth”. It reveals how there will no longer be a need for a sun nor a moon because God Himself and Christ Jesus will abide in New Jerusalem and be all the light that is ever needed (Revelation 21:23), and there will obviously never be another night (Revelation 21:25).Revelation 22:1-2 describes “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne and God and the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On the other side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding the fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”Now, “death” has NOT YET been abolished and ONLY God’s “elect” (those believers mentioned in #3 and #4 above) have immortality at this particular time. The “nations”, on the other hand, are still mortals and need the healing power from the “tree of life”.Revelation 22:5 goes on to say there will still be “ages” to come before the “end”.6. Then, after the “ages” mentioned in verse 22:5 have run their course, there will come the “end” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:24 when Christ has subjected ALL enemies and hostilities under Him and He hands the Kingdom over to God the Father in verse 24. The enemy that is LAST to be “destroyed” or “abolished” is ‘death’ itself in verse 26.This means that even those experiencing the “second death” in Revelation 20:14 are NOW RELEASED because ‘death’ NO LONGER EXISTS! Now is the time mentioned in verse 22 when ALL will be made “alive” (immortal) because of Christ’s sacrifice….as He FORETOLD in John 12:32: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will drawALLmen to Myself” (emphasis mine).The ‘nations’ living on the ‘new earth’ will also now no longer need the “leaves” of the “tree of life” for healing.Those who have been released from the grips of the “second death” have already suffered and been chastised CONSIDERABLY , and they have ALREADY PAID an ENORMOUS price for their sins….there is no need to continue to hold them in the unconscious state of death. Please reference the Posts “Death” and ” Misunderstanding About the Salvation of All Creation” for further information on this.Those being released from the “second death” are the last group mentioned in verses 23 and 24 to receive the “life”, without the possibility of ever dying….SINCE DEATH HAS BEEN ABOLISHED!!7. This, then, is God’s “plan of the ages”.He becomes “ALL THINGS IN ALL” as GLORIOUSLY and TRIUMPHANTLY stated in verse 28!!Please also reference the Posts “All Creation Will Be Saved”, “Misunderstanding About The Salvation Of All Creation” and “Eon vs Forever” for a lot more information; as well, you might want to checkout the Posts “Hell” and “Death”.Until later, in HimFred

I have to share with you some really good truth from Oswald Chambers’ “My Utmost For His Highest” entry of 02/07/2015. Please reference the Post by the same name as his book title for information on obtaining all of his daily entries for FREE. Here goes and EMPHASIS will be mine throughout:

“Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer.

We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that ALL the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only OBEY, and DO THE TASK that He has placed closest to us, WE WILL SEE HIM. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that IT IS IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF THINGS that we REALIZE the MAGNIFICENT DEITY of Jesus Christ.”

End of excerpt.

Please reference the Posts “Answered Prayer” and “Pray On The Potty” for some further thoughts on prayer.